NEW YORK - A declaratory insurance coverage action filed by Chapter 11 debtor Rapid-American Corp. is not the proper vehicle for insurers to use in search of evidence of fraud in the asbestos trust system, the debtor says in an Oct. 20 motion and memorandum seeking protection from the insurers' subpoenas...

WILMINGTON, Del. - Reorganized chemical conglomerate W.R. Grace & Co. will receive an additional $1.6 million tax refund from the U.S. government after a Delaware federal bankruptcy judge found Oct. 23 that the Internal Revenue Service used the wrong percentage rate when figuring the refund (In re...

OAKLAND, Calif. - A California federal bankruptcy judge on Nov. 16 entered a judgment of more than $3.5 million against an insurance company in a dispute over the amount of coverage owed to a company's liquidating trust for asbestos personal injury claims, including attorney fees and a $60,000 penalty...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - A North Carolina federal bankruptcy judge on Nov. 16 appointed the Official Committee of Asbestos Personal Injury Claimants in the new Chapter 11 case of Bestwall LLC, selecting one of three claimants who requested to sit on the committee in addition to the nine claimants proposed by...

PITTSBURGH - Negotiations between Chapter 11 debtor Geo. V. Hamilton Inc. and asbestos claimants on the company's proposed plan of reorganization continue, with the parties scheduled to file a report on their progress within a week, according to a Pennsylvania federal bankruptcy judge's Nov....

WILMINGTON, Del. - The revised plan of reorganization for Chapter 11 debtor Energy Future Holdings Corp. (EFH) cannot be confirmed because its treatment of claimants who have not yet developed an asbestos disease is unlawful and it was proposed in bad faith, eight asbestos personal injury claimants tell...

NEW YORK - A federal bankruptcy judge in New York on Dec. 15 denied Rapid-American Corp.'s request to make details of a proposed sale of claims on defunct insurance company, Midland Insurance Co., confidential, saying it had not even tried to give reason for the secrecy (In re: Rapid-American Corp...

CHICAGO - Chapter 11 debtor Oakfabco Inc. gave the go-ahead Dec. 20 to asbestos claimants to pursue a nine-count fraudulent inducement complaint against Oakfabco insurers and a claims management company alleging that they knew that additional coverage was available for asbestos claims when the insurers...

BOSTON - In what it deemed a case of first impression, a divided First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Jan. 12 found that a trademark licensee retains only the right to seek prepetition damages following a Chapter 11 debtor-in-possession's rejection of the underlying license agreement (Mission Product...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Chapter 11 debtor Bestwall LLC on Jan. 23 received an extension from a North Carolina federal bankruptcy judge on the time it has to remove any lawsuit filed against the company to a district court, though the judge gave the debtor half the time it asked for (In re Bestwall LLC, No...

NEW YORK - An asbestosis sufferer "received due process in every possible respect" as a future claimant in the long-running Chapter 11 case of Johns-Manville Corp., so he cannot pursue in personam claims against the company's insurance broker, a New York federal bankruptcy judge held Jan...

NEWARK, N.J. - A New Jersey federal bankruptcy judge on Jan. 26 abstained from deciding a request by former Chapter 11 debtor G-I Holdings Inc. to enforce its reorganization plan injunction to bar indemnification claims for cleanup of a polluted industrial site, saying a state court is "fully capable...

WILMINGTON, Del. - Former employees of a bankrupt insurance and reinsurance services company filed a putative class action complaint on Feb. 1 in the Delaware bankruptcy court, alleging that they were laid off without proper notice under the Workers' Adjustment and Retraining Notice Act (WARN Act...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Chapter 11 debtor Bestwall LLC is willing to take $750,000 in cash now from a purchaser of a defunct insurer's asbestos policy rather than wait for years to see if it can collect the policy's remaining $3.75 million from the insurer's liquidation proceedings, Bestwall says...

NEW YORK - Chapter 11 debtor Rapid-American Corp. and asbestos claimants in its bankruptcy case do not have standing to challenge subpoenas served by insurers to asbestos claims-processing facilities seeking evidence of fraud in the asbestos trust system, and besides, the information sought is relevant...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - An insurer of Chapter 11 debtor Hanson Permanente Cement Inc. sought relief from the automatic bankruptcy stay on Feb. 13 in North Carolina federal bankruptcy court so it can pursue $2.8 million in reimbursements from other insurers for settlement payments made to asbestos personal...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - A North Carolina federal bankruptcy judge on Feb. 17 approved in a minute order a settlement between Chapter 11 debtors Kaiser Gypsum Co. Inc. and Hanson Permanente Cement Inc. and the joint scheme administrator for two insolvent British insurers, setting claim values for the debtors...

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - Reversionary interests in land parcels are property of a reorganized debtor, and an insurer's liquidator is precluded from interfering with those interests, a New York federal bankruptcy judge ruled Feb. 15, ordering transfer of title to the reorganized debtor (In re: Frontier...

CHICAGO - Chapter 11 debtor Oakfabco Inc. on Feb. 21 modified its plan of liquidation and disclosure statement to answer questions by three insurers whose $9.78 million settlement offer was rejected by the debtor and who filed the only objection to the disclosure statement in the Illinois federal bankruptcy...

PITTSBURGH - Two insurers of Chapter 11 debtor Geo. V. Hamilton Inc. are the only parties to object to the company's plan of reorganization, and the objections are more like "caveats" that should be resolved in time for the plan confirmation hearing, the insurers said Feb. 20 in an objection...